Information service using single-object servers

ABSTRACT

An information network, such as the Internet (FIG. 1), uses a plurality of servers ( 140-142, 160, 170-171 ) each one of which serves only a single object ( 200-205 ), whereby the servers avoid the processing overhead involved in searching through files containing a plurality of objects for a requested object. Rather, receipt of a request by a server can only mean a request for the one object served by the server, which the server retrieves and provides to the requesting client ( 120 ). Since each server serves only one object, the client must contact a plurality of the servers in order to obtain a page ( 250 ) of information that comprises a plurality of objects.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to information network architecture, such as theInternet or an intranet architecture.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In an information network, such as the Internet, user's computers,referred to as clients, request information from information-providers'computers, referred to as servers, and the servers supply the requestedinformation to the clients. In the World Wide Web (WWW), which is ade-facto standard for storing, finding, and transferring information onthe Internet, the information is supplied in the form of pages. A pageis a display screen-full of information expressed in textual, graphical,scriptural, and/or other format. A page comprises one or moreinformation objects. An object is an information element that has itsown network address—preferably a unique single address—, called a URL(Uniform Resource Locator). For example, a page may comprise one or moretext objects, one or more picture objects, and one or more scriptobjects that are presented on the display screen in a layout defined bya frame object.

Normally, a single server provides an entire page, and often a pluralityof pages of related information. The information is normally requestedby clients and provided by the server object-by-object. When it receivesa request for information from a client, the server uses the addresscontained in the request to find and retrieve the addressed object fromits files of objects and sends it to the client. The search for therequested object constitutes a significant processing overhead on theserver's activities. A server can become swamped with requests forinformation. Under such a heavy load, the server typically gets boggeddown with the searches for requested information, and its response timebecomes slow.

To avoid overburdening a server, some service providers have the servedinformation replicated in a plurality of servers and have different onesof the servers serve different requests, e.g., on a round-robin basis,thereby spreading the load of requests over multiple servers. However,this does nothing to lessen the processing overhead involved insearching for requested objects that each of the servers must perform.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention is directed to solving these and other problems anddisadvantages of the prior art. According to the invention, aninformation network—the Internet, for example—uses a plurality ofservers each one of which serves only a single object, so that a clientmust contact a plurality of servers in order to obtain a page ofinformation that comprises a plurality of objects. Since each serverserves only one object, it need not search for a requested object;rather, receipt of a request by the server can only mean a request forthe one object, which the server retrieves and provides to therequester. Hence, the processing overhead involved in searching aplurality of objects for the requested object is eliminated. Because theserver serves only the one simple function, the server can be a single,inexpensive, processor without much processing power. And because itstores and serves only the one object, the server's memory can berelatively small and hence inexpensive. Yet from the viewpoint of theclient, the information network and the manner of obtaining informationtherefrom have not changed. Hence, no change in operation and noadditional processing burden are imposed on the client. This results ina simplified information network, and one whose architecture can easilybe retrofitted into existing information networks.

According to one aspect of the invention, an information systemcomprises a plurality of servers each one of which serves a differentonly one information object to clients, and a client of the serverswhich responds to a request from a user for a page that comprises aplurality of information objects by obtaining each information object ofthe page from a different one of the servers.

According to another aspect of the invention, a server for aclient-server information system that includes a plurality of serversand at least one client of the servers, comprises memory for storing asingle information object of a page that comprise a plurality ofinformation object, and responds to the request from the client byproviding only the single stored information object to the client; theserver does not provide any other object to any clients. The clienttherefore must obtain the plurality of information objects of the pagefrom a plurality of the servers, and preferably must obtain a differentonly one page from each one of the plurality of the servers.

According to a further aspect of the invention, a method of obtaining apage of information in an information system that includes a client anda plurality of servers of the client, comprises the following steps. Inresponse to a user's request for a page that comprises a plurality ofinformation objects, the client requests the plurality of informationobjects from the servers. And in response to the request, a plurality ofthe servers each provides a different only one of the requestedinformation object to the client; none of the plurality of the serversprovide any other information objects to any clients.

These and other advantages and features of the invention will becomemore apparent from the following description of an illustrativeembodiment of the invention taken together with the drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an information network that includes anillustrative embodiment of the invention:

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating how a page is obtained andcomposed in the network of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of operation of an object server of the networkof FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative information network, which in this exampleis the Internet. The Internet comprises a plurality of intranets 100-102interconnected by an Internet backbone network 103. Access between eachintranet 100-102 and the Internet backbone network 103 is provided by agateway 107-109, respectively. Each intranet 100-102 comprises one ormore local area networks (LANS) 110, 112, 114, respectively, and/or oneor more communications links 111, 113, 115, respectively, eachconnecting one or more computers to the respective gateway. In theillustrative example of FIG. 1, LAN 110 connects a plurality of clients120-130 to gateway 107 and link 111 connects a server 131 to gateway107; LAN 112 connects a plurality of servers 140-150 to gateway 108 andlink 113 connects a client 151 to gateway 108; and LAN 114 connects amix of services and clients 160-170 to gateway 109 while link 115connects a server 171 to gateway 109. As described so far, the Internetof FIG. 1 is conventional.

According to the invention, at least some, and possibly all, of theservers 131, 140-150, 160, and 170-171 are single-object servers; eachprovides only one addressable information unit (i.e., one object) torequesting clients. This aspect of the Internet of FIG. 1 is illustratedmore clearly in FIG. 2. As is conventional, a user of a client 120 whois in possession of a universal resource locator (URL)—a name, or avirtual address—of a page that the user wishes to view sends the hostname part of the URL to an Internet name server—e.g., a gateway—whichreturns a corresponding Internet Protocol (IP) address—address of aparticular computer. Client 120 then sends out the IP address as a pagerequest on the Internet, and a server 160 that is addressed by the IPaddress receives the request.

According to the invention, server 160 is a single-object server. Hence,it need not search its files for the object that is addressed by therequest, but merely responds to the receipt of the request at step 300of FIG. 3, by returning to the requesting client 120 its one object 200at step 302. Object 200 is the frame object of the desired page: itcontains information that defines the page layout and the IP addressesof the text, graphic, script, etc., objects 201-205 that make up thepage.

Upon receipt of object 200, client 120 sends out the IP addressescontained by object 200 as requests on the Internet, and serversaddressed by these IP addresses receive the requests. Each IP addressaddresses a different server 140, 141, 142, 170, 171, and hence eachrequest is received by a different one of those servers, which also aresingle-object servers. Hence, these servers also need not search theirfiles for the requested objects. Rather, each server 140, 141, 142, 170,171 responds to the request which it received at step 300 by returningits one object 201-205, respectively, to the requesting client 120 atstep 302. Client 120 responds to receipt of the requested objects201-205 by composing therefrom the desired page according to the layoutdefinition contained in frame object 200 and displays the page to theuser, in a conventional manner.

Of course, various changes and modifications to the illustrativeembodiment described above will be apparent to those skilled in the art.For example, the single object servers may take any desirable form—fromlarge computers to microprocessors embedded in other appliances (e.g.,washing machines, toasters, etc.). Or, replicated single-object serversmay be used along with round-robin DNS resolution to spread the loadamong servers. Also, a mixture of single-object and multiple-objectservers may be used together in a network. Such changes andmodifications can be made without departing from the spirit and thescope of the invention and without diminishing its attendant advantages.It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be coveredby the following claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An information system comprising: aplurality of servers each serving a different only one informationobject to clients; and a client of the servers connected to theplurality of servers and responsive to a request from a user for a pagecomprising a plurality of information objects, for obtaining eachinformation object of the page from a different one of the servers. 2.The information system of claim 1 wherein: the page comprises aplurality of data information objects configured in a manner defined bya frame information object; and each server serves only a single one ofthe frame and the data information objects.
 3. The information system ofclaim 2 wherein: the client configures the received plurality of datainformation objects into the requested page for the user in the mannerdefined by the frame information object.
 4. A server for a client-serverinformation system comprising a plurality of servers and at least oneclient of the servers, the server comprising: means for storing a singleinformation object of a page comprising a plurality of informationobjects; and means responsive to a request from the client, forproviding only the single stored information object to the clientwithout providing any other objects to any clients; so that the clientmust obtain the plurality of information objects of the page from aplurality of the servers.
 5. A method of obtaining a page of informationin an information system comprising a client and a plurality of serversof the client, comprising the steps of: in response to a user's requestfor a page comprising a plurality of information objects, the clientrequesting the plurality of information objects from the servers; and inresponse to the request, a plurality of the servers each providing adifferent only one of the requested information objects to the clientwithout providing any other information objects to any clients.
 6. Themethod of claim 5 wherein: the step of requesting comprises the steps ofin response to the user's request for the page comprising a plurality ofdata information objects, the client requesting a frame informationobject that identifies the plurality of data information objects, and inresponse to receiving the frame information object, the clientrequesting the plurality of data information objects identified by theframe information object; and the step of providing comprises the stepsof in response to the request for the frame information object, a firstserver providing the frame information object to the client withoutproviding any other objects to any clients, and in response to therequest for the data information objects, a plurality of servers otherthan the first server each providing a different only one of therequested data information objects to the client without providing anyother objects to any clients.